


The Woods

by merryghoul



Series: The Last CIA Job [4]
Category: Burn Notice
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Community: hc_bingo, F/M, Fix-It, Minor Character Death, Non-Sexual Bondage, Sexual Content, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 19:19:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2162100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things go wrong when James invites Michael's team to his medical tent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Woods

**Author's Note:**

> [](http://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/)**hc_bingo** prompt: arena

The helicopter dropped Michael, Fiona, Jesse and Burke off near where the Charger was before flying back to Miami.  Burke helped Jesse inside the Charger while Fiona sat in the front passenger seat and Michael the driver's seat.

As Michael drove away, it seemed like the four were in the clear to return to James' medical tent in Miami.  Then a state highway patrol car appeared behind the Charger.

"I advise everyone in the car to hold on," Michael said.

Michael sped away from the patrol car before making a bootlegger's turn on the highway.  He sped away in the other direction, hoping to get behind the patrol car.  The patrol car also made a bootlegger's turn and caught up to Michael, readying itself to ram the Charger off the road.  Michael sped away from the patrol car again, performing another bootlegger's turn.  But the patrol car did another bootlegger's turn and sped up behind the Charger.

Michael had to do something else.  The Charger's tires couldn't survive a series of repeated bootlegger's turns.

Michael performed a moonshiner's turn.  He drove the car backwards, waiting for the patrol car to bypass him.  The patrol car tried to do a bootlegger's turn and follow behind the Charger to ram it.  But Michael sped up to the patrol car before it could turn, ramming it.  The patrol car ran off the road and crashed into a tree, disabling it for good.  With the patrol car out of the way, Michael drove the Charger to James' medical tent outside of Miami.

"Hey, Michael," Burke said, "do you have a cell phone?  We should call the medical tent and tell them to expect us."

Michael pulled out his phone.  He gave his phone to Fiona, who in turn gave the phone to Burke.  Burke called James.

"James, Jesse's hurt.  We'll need to come in to the medical tent."

_"Tell Jesse and his friends to come over.  I have something I want to show them."_

 

When the Charger arrived at the medical tent, Michael, Fiona, Jesse and Burke weren't expecting James to be in front of the medical tent, his SIG-Sauer by his side. 

Burke helped Jesse out of the Charger as Michael and Fiona stepped out of the car.

"Brother Burke, I'm happy that you're free from your confines," James said.

"I can't wait to go back to the Dominican Republic to finish what I started, sir."

"Michael, I have something you and your friends should see.  Follow me."

James led Michael, his friends and Burke into an area of the tent without any medical equipment.  There, Sam was in a corner of that tent, kneeling.  Two of Burke's men were watching over him, Taurus guns hovering over his head.  James waved them off when he entered the tent.

"Brother Burke, I have a job for you."  He picked up a Taurus gun off the desk and handed it to Burke.  "I want you to guard that man there."

"I've seen him before.  He's one of Michael's friends.  We captured him in Moca."

James nodded.  "My men picked Sam up after they saw him spying on them.  I thought it would be convenient to have Sam rejoin his friends here for the last time."

Burke took the gun.  He walked behind Sam and pointed the gun at the back of his head.

"There are two things I value most in my family.  Those things are trust and honesty."  James paced around the floor of the tent, SIG-Sauer in his right hand.  "I don't like when people come in my family, sneak around my back and lie to me in my face.  I didn't want to find out that you and your friends were working with the CIA, but I found out.  We almost had to kill Sam here to do it, but I found out.  You know what I do to dishonest people, Michael?"

"Do I have to guess?"

James pointed his gun at Michael.  "Don't draw on me, Michael.  You know this is the end for you and your friends."

Michael raised his hands.  "I have a confession, James.  The truth is _I_ want to prove myself to you.  Those people you see beside me?  They're not my friends.  They wanted to bring you into the CIA because if they don't, they'll be locked up for good.  But I don't want to be locked up forever.  I want to change the world with you.  Kill them.  They're worthless to you.  But if you keep me alive, we'll do great things together."

As Michael talked, Jesse limped and slid out of James' eyesight.  Fiona held still, watching Jesse out the corners of her eyes.

James nodded.  "That's bullshit, Michael, and you know it."

"No!  No.  It's the truth.  They were holding me back.  I want to reach my highest potential.  You can help me reach that."  His wide eyes filled with tears.  Crocodile tears, but tears nonetheless.

While Michael talked with James, Jesse snuck up behind James and punched him in the face.  Burke pointed his gun at Jesse as James fell to the ground.  Fiona ran up to Burke and kicked him in his crotch.  As Burke fell to the ground, Fiona grabbed his Taurus and helped Sam up.  Sam took the Taurus from Fiona; James took and hid his beloved Beretta earlier.  James grabbed Fiona and pointed his SIG-Sauer at her head.  James dragged Fiona out of the tent. 

"Jesse, you keep an eye on Burke," Michael said.  "Sam and I are going to go after James." 

"I always have to be somebody's babysitter."

"I'd take you, but I don't want you to run on that ankle."

"I wouldn't want to run on this ankle either.  You and Sam better go now, Mike."

Michael nodded.  Sam and Michael ran after James.  Some of James' men that overheard the conversation ran after them. 

Woodlands surrounded James' tent.  To avoid James' men shooting at them, Michael and Sam ran to a big tree near the tent. 

"How many bullets do you have, Sam?"

Sam pulled out the magazine of the Taurus and looked at it.  "Two.  Who did James waste before he gave this to Burke?  Geez."

"My magazine's full.  Let's trade guns."

"You're going after James with two bullets?"

"You have a better chance of taking out those men with my gun than you have with that one.  And I might not need to use those bullets in that gun."

"You'd better not be full of bullets the next time I find you, Mikey." 

Sam and Michael traded guns.  Sam continued to hide behind the tree he stopped at while Michael ran after James and Fiona.

James' men didn't move from their hiding positions in the forest; they didn't see Michael advancing towards James.  Sam waited for James' men to shoot at him.  When their shooting slowed down, Sam shot at the men, killing them one by one.  With James' men dead, Sam followed Michael.

 

Michael met James in a clear space in the woods.  James still had his left arm around Fiona's waist and his SIG-Sauer against Fiona's head.  Fiona kept quiet; she was careful not to show the fear she was feeling on her face.

Michael laid down his gun.  He raised his hands and then put them by his side.  "I know ever since we've met you, all we've been doing is telling you lies.  But I'm gonna tell you the truth for once.  I don't agree with how you've made your family.  I can't drug and torture someone I care about and call them a brother.  But I have a family.  I have a mother I'm still trying to understand.  I have a nephew in Las Vegas living with his mother right now.  It's been tough since my brother was killed, but they're both hanging in there.  And I have friends.  I don't know what I'd do without those people in my life.  And I _really_ don't know what I'd do without Fiona. 

"Fiona's not my oldest friend.  She wasn't supposed to be my friend.  I was supposed to use her to find a gun runner in Ireland back in 2001.  But I ended up falling in love with her.  She left her boyfriend because of me.  We didn't have the happiest relationship while we lived together in Ireland.  But we understood each other.  And Fiona understands me in a way I don't think my family or my other friends understand me.

"I tried to forget about her when my cover was blown in Ireland and I was sent to other parts of the world with the CIA.  But she was in the back of my mind with every job I did.  I was kicking myself for leaving her.   Sometimes I even considered going back in time and faking my death so she and I could live in a little house in the Irish countryside, far away from the CIA.  I didn't think I'd end up burned and stranded in Miami.  And she came to Miami to pick me up from the airport and drop me off at a motel.  It was my fault—I needed an emergency contact on my CIA documents, and I didn't want to list my mom as my emergency contact.  So I put her contact information under an assumed name.

"I wanted to start a new relationship with her.  But I didn't know how at first.  I thought all the issues that came up in our last relationship would come back.  I thought all the things I never told her about my past relationships would haunt us.  But it never stopped me loving her. 

"I've almost lost Fiona to men she wanted to date, men that have kidnapped her, even men who wanted to kill her.  I could've lost my life saving her, and she could've lost her life saving me.  I've almost lost her because I put my job before her needs.  I'm so close to having her with me for the rest of my life.  No more secrets, no more indecision, no more people trying to end her life and mine.  If you killed her now, I don't know what I'd do. 

"Yes, my happy ending includes turning you to the CIA.  But I can spare you.  If you let Fiona go, I'll let you go.  The CIA will find you someday and arrest you.  I can't do anything about that.  All I want is for Fiona to be okay.  And we'll never bother you or your organization ever again."

James lowered his gun and released Fiona's waist.  Fiona ran into Michael's arms.  Sam arrived to see Michael and Fiona embracing.

"We're not going to take James, Sam.  We're going to take Burke to the CIA."

"Mike, are you crazy?  We either bring in James or we go back to jail!"

"I promised him I wouldn't take him.  We can tell—"

James' gun went off behind the three, followed by a thud.

Michael, Fiona and Sam went out of the woods as fast as they could after James' gun went off.

 

The team couldn't capture James.  But they could recapture Burke and present him to the CIA.  The team tied Burke up.  His forearms and lower legs were covered in duct tape.  Putting another piece of duct tape over his mouth was a final touch.  Michael and Sam threw Burke in the trunk of the Charger and headed to the CIA's Miami headquarters.  Once they were there, Michael invited Strong to meet them in the parking lot to view Burke in the trunk.

Strong's face grew red when he saw Burke in the trunk.  "Where's James?"

"He's dead, Strong," Michael said.  "He chose another way out."

"You were supposed to bring me James, not Burke!  If I wanted Burke, I would've kept him in jail."

"But James is dead.  We can take you to some of the places he owned in the city.  You can find proof James was building a terrorist organization in the Americas.  Isn't that what you wanted? "

"It's not enough, Michael.  I'm going to need to send all of you to Cuba.  We're going to need to hunt down Sonya Lebedenko.  She might have—"

Sam pointed at Strong. "Hey, you said that if we captured James, you'd let us go.  Okay, so we didn't capture James.  But we didn't say we were going to work on another pet project of yours.  You've got enough men to get this Sonya.  Go find her yourself."

Jesse shook her head at Strong.  Fiona gave him her death stare.  Burke rocked back and forth in the trunk.

Strong sighed.  "Bring in Burke.  We'll have some men cover him and take him back to jail.  After he's inside, you're free to go.  And your mother is free to go too."

Michael and Fiona looked into each others' eyes and smiled. 

 

That night, Michael and Fiona had sex to celebrate not only surviving the Burke and James job, but for staying alive…again.

Early in the morning, the two had found their way back into their bed.  Fiona stroked Michael's chest as he looked up at the roof of their suite.

"We're going to need a shower," Michael said.

"We don't need a shower.  We already took a bath."

"We had sex in the tub, Fi."

Fiona nuzzled her head on Michael's chest.  "You weren't complaining about what I did in the tub."

"I didn't know you could do that."

"I know lots of things, Michael.  I'm going to teach you everything I know."

"You're not feeling…"

"I feel fine."

"In that case…"  Michael slid out of Fiona's grip and moved on top of her.  "I'm going to have dessert."

Fiona wiggled her eyebrows.  "Go ahead."

Michael made his way down Fiona's body, Fiona guiding him along the way.

 

A week later, Jesse called Fiona while Michael stepped out of their suite.  

"What's up, Jesse?"

_"Got a job for you.  I'll meet up with you at Carlito's."_

"Okay."

When she arrived, she was the last person at their table.  Michael, Sam, Jesse and Madeline were already there. 

Fiona blinked.  "What's going on, guys?"

"I told you, Fi.  We have a client," Jesse said.

"He's someone you know very well," Sam added.  He pointed to Michael.

"Michael, do you still have enemies out here?"

"No, Fi.  I need to talk to you."

Michael stood up and grabbed Fiona's hands.  "I meant everything I said in the woods, Fi.  I don't know what I'd do if I lose you.  Now I'm out of the CIA, I want to make that official."  He went down on one knee.  He pulled out a ring—an Asscher-cut diamond—from his pocket.  It was the diamond cut she mentioned wanting after their extraction job in Venezuela.  "Fiona Glenanne, will you marry me?"

Fiona froze.  She stammered.  "Michael, I already have what I came here for.  You.  And all I wanted to do was to work by your side after the CIA business was over."

Michael gritted his teeth.

Fiona smiled.  "But yes, Michael, I'll marry you."

Michael put the ring on Fiona's finger.

"I don't care about where we have the wedding," Fiona whispered to Michael, "but I want a honeymoon in Paris."

Michael nodded.  "I haven't forgotten, Fi."  He smiled. 

Michael stood up again, kissing Fiona.  The patrons at Carlito's as well as their friends and Madeline cheered them on.

The two embraced and kissed as Madeline and his friends cheered them on.

"I'm going to like this job," Michael said after the kiss.

Fiona grinned.  "And what job is that?"

"Being your husband."

"I'm going to like this job too, Michael."

The two kissed again, preparing for their new job as husband and wife.


End file.
